Founding Board Member - Secretary

Role Type

• Volunteer Board Member
• Founding / Early-Stage Working Board Role
• Board Secretary

Term

• Board Term: 3 years
• Officer Role: aligned with director terms as defined in WSN’s bylaws

About Women’s Survivors Network

Women’s Survivors Network is a survivor-led nonprofit building a trusted ecosystem of guided support, resources, education, and services for women who have experienced abuse across the spectrum, including coercive control, narcissistic abuse, covert psychological abuse, workplace abuse, familial abuse, institutional abuse, and systemic harm.

WSN supports survivors through the journey of awakening, stabilizing, healing, rebuilding, and eventually stepping into leadership that helps transform the systems that failed them.

WSN is currently in an early infrastructure-building stage. The founding board is helping establish the organization’s governance, financial foundation, program readiness, partnerships, policies, and long-term sustainability.

Position Summary

WSN is seeking a founding board member to serve as Board Secretary, with a focus on governance documentation, board records, meeting minutes, resolutions, and decision clarity.

The Secretary helps ensure the integrity, accuracy, and accessibility of WSN’s governance records while supporting a structured, transparent, and survivor-centered board environment. This role safeguards institutional memory, legal documentation, and decision clarity so WSN’s governance remains consistent, accountable, and compliant.

This is a founding working-board role, not a staff administrative position. Like other WSN board roles, it includes governance, oversight, and strategic contribution. Because WSN is still in an early build stage, this role also includes practical, hands-on support with meeting documentation, record maintenance, governance tracking, and organizing board records.

The role is collaborative and bounded. The Secretary does not make unilateral governance decisions and does not carry governance alone. The role supports documentation integrity so the board can make clear, informed, mission-aligned decisions.

Core Responsibilities

The Board Secretary helps WSN:

• Maintain accurate and complete records of board meetings, decisions, and resolutions.
• Record clear and accurate meeting minutes, including motions, votes, outcomes, and key discussion items.
• Ensure board decisions are documented in the appropriate place, including resolutions when formal decisions are made.
• Maintain consistency and clarity across official governance records.
• Ensure governance documents are properly stored, organized, and accessible to the board.
• Support alignment between meetings, resolutions, and documentation.
• Help maintain continuity of governance records over time.
• Support accurate documentation of actions required for legal and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure governance records meet nonprofit and bylaws requirements.
• Support board communication clarity by helping preserve what was discussed, decided, and assigned.
• Work closely with the Board President on meeting flow and governance alignment.
• Work with the Treasurer when financial governance documentation is needed.
• Collaborate with board members to support record clarity and follow-through.

Governance Committee Participation

As a member of the Governance Committee, the Board Secretary also contributes to conversations related to:

• Board structure, documentation, and governance process clarity.
• Meeting, minutes, and resolution practices.
• Board onboarding and record continuity.
• Policy review and governance documentation needs.
• Compliance-related documentation and annual governance rhythms.
• Board accountability, transparency, and decision clarity.
• Identifying where board processes may need clearer systems, templates, or follow-through.

The Secretary participates through a documentation and governance-records lens and is not responsible for leading the Governance Committee unless separately appointed.

Ideal Background

Strong candidates may bring experience in several of the following areas:

• Nonprofit board service, board secretary work, governance, compliance, or administration.
• Meeting minutes, resolutions, records management, board packets, or official documentation.
• Executive assistant, legal assistant, operations, project coordination, administrative, or documentation experience.
• Early-stage, founder-led, grassroots, or resource-constrained nonprofit settings.
• Building practical systems that support clarity, accountability, and follow-through.

Experience with survivor-serving, women-led, racial justice, healing, legal, housing, mental health, or community-based organizations is welcome, but not required.

Values and Leadership Fit

WSN is looking for someone who is:

• Survivor-centered and trauma-informed.
• Clear, steady, organized, and detail-oriented.
• Respectful of confidentiality, privacy, and sensitive organizational information.
• Able to document decisions and processes with care and accuracy.
• Comfortable with early-stage nonprofit ambiguity.
• Brings baseline familiarity with nonprofit structures, board governance, compliance, or administrative systems.
• Able to support structure without becoming rigid, punitive, or overly formal.
• Respectful of founder-led and survivor-led organizational realities.
• Clear about boundaries between board governance, officer responsibilities, and day-to-day operations.
• Able to help build systems without overcomplicating them.
• Committed to equity, dignity, cultural responsiveness, and long-term sustainability.

Time Commitment

Estimated commitment: approximately 2–4 hours per month on average, with some periods reaching up to 5–6 hours during busier board-preparation, onboarding, annual governance, or documentation seasons.

This may include:

• Quarterly full board meetings.
• Monthly Governance Committee meetings.
• Meeting documentation and minutes.
• Record maintenance.
• Governance tracking.
• Resolution documentation.
• Review or organization of board records.
• Occasional preparation or follow-up between meetings.
• Monthly Board Member 1:1, depending on WSN’s board rhythm.

WSN values clarity and sustainability. The goal is not constant availability, but dependable contribution to board record integrity and governance clarity.

What This Role Does Not Do

This role does not:

• Serve as paid administrative staff.
• Serve as Governance Committee Co-Lead unless separately appointed.
• Carry all governance responsibility alone.
• Manage day-to-day operations.
• Make unilateral governance decisions.
• Replace the Executive Director, Board President, legal counsel, or full board authority.
• Provide legal advice unless separately qualified and formally engaged to do so.
• Hold all documentation, compliance, or communication responsibilities without support.
• Create punitive or overly rigid governance systems.
• Take on responsibilities outside the defined role without discussion and consent.

Inclusive Recruitment

WSN is committed to building a board that reflects the communities, experiences, and values at the heart of our mission. We are a survivor-led organization grounded in women-centered governance, and we deeply value leadership shaped by lived experience, care, and accountability.

We welcome interest from candidates of all backgrounds and strongly encourage people with lived experience, survivors, women of color, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, disabled people, and people from historically excluded communities to consider this role.

Candidates will be considered based on their background, skills, experience, judgment, mission alignment, availability, and ability to contribute to WSN’s survivor-centered governance, documentation, and long-term sustainability.